


The Screams of His Punishment

by Canadiantardis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Five years in the future, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Gore, Platonic Relationships, Shallura if you squint, Shiro Big Bang 2017, Torture, Violence, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-09
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-01-26 12:37:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12557540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Even after five years of fighting, all it takes is one small slip up to let the galra get the upper hand. Now, Shiro and the other Paladins are at the mercy of the Galra, but they give anything but mercy back. How long can Shiro endure watching his teammates get tortured in front of him before they all break? And where are the Alteans, having been separated from the Paladins even before the capture?Fic for theShiro Big Bang Event





	1. Knockout

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, it's been a journey to say the least for this fic to get done, but here we go

Things spiralled out of their favour as soon as they were a wormhole away from the Castle of Lions. Although not the first time they had been separated from Allura and Coran, it was the shouts and the barrages against their combined form was pushing the team to their limits.

“Voltron’s structure is weakening!” Katie shouted over the attacks, grunting with the effort to keep her Lion-arm stable, holding the shield. “We can’t take much more of this, there has to be something we can do!”

But there was nothing. A flash of light engulfed the five Paladins, and the last thing they heard was Allura demanding information on their location.

* * *

 

Shiro came to with a groan, feeling weightless. He heard the attacks continuing as if through a tunnel. His hands were limp on top of Huyen’s controls before they slipped… up?

He opened his eyes, then blinked once, twice as everything came back into focus, and the barrage of noise coming from outside his lion blasted his eardrums. But he didn’t focus on that, he realized he was floating, the gravity in his Lion turned off, and worse, she wasn’t responding, even in his mind, as if she were dazed or knocked out.

Shiro tested the controls but still Huyen didn’t move.

“Guys? Anyone, are you there?” He called through to the communications, hearing a crackle before voices responded.

“Shiro? What happened?” Lance groaned out. “What was that attack? It knocked Blue out cold.”

“Same with Black, I’m guessing they did something to stun the Lions.” Shiro mused, shaking his head to get rid of the last bit of groggy confusion, his voice turning more militaristic. “Guys we have to wake up our Lions before they try-”

He didn’t finish as a shout of alarm came over the communications link.

“Hunk!” Katie was the first to shout in response to the Yellow Paladin’s outburst. “Wake Yellow up! Get away from them!”

Shiro snapped to, trying to see what was going on, but Huyen was looking the opposite direction and still wouldn’t respond. “What’s happening? I can’t do anything.”

Hunk was still yelling as he and the others tried to answer. “They have Yellow! She won’t wake up, I don’t know why she won’t respond! I’m getting pulled, guys!” Shiro heard Hunk shout while the others were yelling to get Hunk to get away, or for their own Lions to wake up to save Yellow.

Then Lance was shouting obscenities as it seemed the Galra had taken a hold of Blue, but still their Lions would not respond. Shiro felt his heart thunder in his ears and he jerked the controls bitterly but again, he got no response.

“C’mon, please, we have to save them.” He muttered, reaching out for his connection with his Lion. He found her dazed, her thoughts scattered and lost, like the space flashbang had done more than blind and rattle them all. He urged her to get up, to move when he was thrown out of the connection as something yanked on Huyen’s hind legs.

He was the last to be pulled into the Galran ship, and he heard the others go quiet.

“Get your bayards at the ready.” He warned, grabbing his own with his organic hand.

“Shiro, you know I can’t do close quarters with this cannon.” Hunk whispered furiously.

“You will have to Hunk, don’t let them take you without a fight.”

Hunk grumbled before the others all heard through the comm link Yellow being forced open.

Before they could hear any more, the same started to happen with Lance, then Keith, then Katie before Shiro heard a whirring sound outside Huyen.

Ignoring the sounds of fighting - or whatever it was he was hearing over the comm link - Shiro prepared his bayard, the weapon first turning into a short sword, simply like an extension of his arm.

Just as the enemy came through, Shiro jumped as Katie gave a pained scream that cut off halfway through, and he was caught off guard when the robotic sentries took aim at him and shot a bolt of pure electricity at him.

* * *

 

When Shiro came too again, it was with another groan. He heard voices around him, along with a white noise so intense he tried to cover his ears but found himself bound.

“Remove it before Champion has any ideas.” He clearly heard the crackling voice of Haggar say.

He opened his eyes before shutting them again as something as bright as the sun was right in front of his face, blinding him. Since he couldn’t use his sight for the moment, he tried using his other senses to figure out what was going on around him.

It was the crunching of metal and a sharp pain in what remained of his right arm that set his heart racing and he shouted. “What are you doing?”

Suddenly that arm felt lighter, with no restraint and he swept his arm around to cover his face. No one stopped him as he blocked whatever the light was, but when he opened his eyes, he saw why: the Galra prosthetic had been ripped off, with the base that was surgically attached to his organic arm all that remained, and he froze, eyes wide.

He was shot away from his thoughts by a low chuckle that he remembered from his nightmares and turned, wide eyed, to see the cloaked face of Haggar, her shark-like grin visible in the bright light that stood over Shiro.

“Welcome back, Champion.”

* * *

 

Shiro was dumped in a different cell than he had ever been in before. This cell was brightly lit, white walls to contrast the rest of the Galran ship they were captive of, and three walls were made of the strong metal.

The fourth wall, however, was something like glass, clear but there was hardly a crack anywhere on its surface. Instead, there were a few small holes cut out purposefully in the very middle of the glass, like a teller’s glass window at a bank or old fashioned movie theater.

On the other side of the glass was another cell, similar to the one Shiro was in, and he saw the other Paladins dumped along the walls, only wearing their under-armour like he was, one of their legs each chained to one wall, although the Black Paladin couldn’t tell if there was enough length for them to even meet in the middle of the room.

When he heard one of them groan, Shiro ran over to the barrier between him and his group, bringing his organic - and now only - hand to the glass.

“Guys? Are you all okay?” He called through one of the holes, watching as Keith - the furthest from Shiro - shifted, a hand going to his side.

More groans sounded from the others as they all slowly seemed to come to, Katie, who was right against the glass, turned her head to blink painfully up at Shiro, the elastic that held her hair in a ponytail seemed to have snapped sometime during capture.

“You guys okay?” Shiro asked again, looking between the others as they all struggled to sit up, clutching their heads or sides.

“Okay, yeah kinda.” Keith grunted, with the others giving similar affirmations, grabbing at the cuff on his leg. “What is this?”

“Restraints… Shir-Your arm!” Lance cried when he looked over to the glass wall and Shiro on the other side. “What the hell happened to your arm?”

Shiro looked down at his right stump with a frown, shaking his head. “I don’t know, my best guess is they took it so I couldn’t use it against them anymore.”

Katie made a pinched face, her eyes on the stump before averting her eyes, looking pale. Shiro couldn’t blame her, seeing emptiness where his arm - organic or prosthetic - had always made his stomach churn uneasily.

“Are you hurt or anything, Shiro?” Hunk called, leaning his head against his wall to look at the leader, as if his head was filled with weights.

Shiro shook his head again. “Not too bad, besides losing my arm… Again.” He ran his remaining hand through his already greying hair, shaking the bangs agitatedly. Thoughts were nagging at him that worried him, but he didn’t want to air them out in case he somehow jinxed it.

“Soo…” Katie trailed on, looking over at the guys in the cell with her. “Anyone got ideas?”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting the chapters every other day! Fun fact, both BBs I was in(Shiro and Klance) had the same posting days, so I'm alternating after today with the fics. Shiro BB is being updated on EVEN days.  
> The art is so great, guys!  
> Oh yea, quick thing, some characters refer to Pidge as Katie(Shiro, Lance), and others refer to her as Pidge(everyone else), and she herself refers to herself as Pidge. As well, I've given each Lion another name they go by to each Paladin. Huyen is the Black Lion's name.


	2. The Duo

Lance wasn’t sure how long they had been brainstorming, or how long until they heard militaristic stomps of metallic boots approaching the conjoined cells, but the Galra came for Shiro first.

Katie was shouting and pounding on the glass, being the closest to Shiro’s cell, yelling insults and obscenities to the sentries as they dragged Shiro off into the unknown, completely ignoring the young woman.

When the door to Shiro’s cell was closed, she twisted back to face the others, slamming a closed fist against the glass while the other tapped nervously against her thigh.

“He’ll be okay, Pidge.” Keith told her, leaning his back against the wall, one leg resting in front of him while the other was bent, his elbow on his knee. “He’s survived these assholes once before, he can do it again.”

“They took his arm, Keith. Again!” Katie retorted, her tapping fingers making Lance feel just as twitchy, and he found himself copying. “Who the hell knows what they could be doing now?”

“Pidge. Stop.” Keith ordered, his tone flat in the way the others could tell he was fighting with his own emotions, and Katie’s twitchy hand stilled, curling into a fist against her thigh.

“Sorry. I’m just…” She mumbled, trailing off but the young men understood. After about five years fighting in an intergalactic war with one another, they all understood each other as well as family could and treated each other like family.

“We all are. Just can’t let them know, right?” Hunk said, his gaze at the door, where Lance was closest to. “Who knows if they’re watching us or not? We can’t let them know anything.”

“Yeah…” Katie nodded her head, sliding down the glass to the floor. “Yeah, you’re right, sorry. Shiro can survive anything. He’ll be okay.”

They were quiet for a couple dobashes when the door opened on their side, and Lance skittered away from the door as sentries and a living Galra entered the cell. The Galra looked around at the others with a smirk.

“Who wishes to go first?” She asked, her eyes alight with malevolence.

“What are you doing to the Black Paladin?” Keith demanded, using Shiro’s title as they had made the agreement to not ever say any of their names when around any of their enemies, after the time of the Bounty Hunter who, after learning Hunk’s name, tried to kidnap his family back on Earth. The kidnapping hadn’t played out, luckily, but it reminded the others how easy it would be for aliens to steal their families.

The Galra turned to the half-Galran Paladin, and seemed to size him up. He was taller than the rest of the Paladins thanks to his alien genes, and his skin had turned a permanent lilac colour since he turned twenty.

Keith stood with his back straight, hands in fists by his sides as he glowered at the Galra, taut as a bowstring.

“I think you’ll find out soon enough. After all, he cannot be properly punished without you.” She smiled, and sharp, pointed teeth were shown, turning to speak over her shoulder to the sentries. “Restrain him and bring the half-breed along.”

The room exploded with noise as Katie and Hunk yelled at the woman guard, but Lance bolted up just as Keith was grabbed by the sentries, trying to reach him.

“Don’t touch him!” He shouted.

The Galra woman turned to him with a narrowed-eyed glance, a slow predator smile covering her face and she stepped into Lance’s space, pinning him against the wall.

“Why? Do you want to see what we’re doing first?” Her eyes sparked brightly but Lance held his ground. He was no longer the bumbling teenager who stumbled across Saphira by accident.

Lance straightened his back and glowered at the woman. When she did nothing but laugh at him, his upper lip rose, a snarl on the tip of his tongue.

She grabbed him by the neck, her thumb and forefinger pressing against just under his jaw as she looked away. “We’ll take this one too. We shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

The Galra woman left the room as the sentries split between Lance and Keith, unchained them from their walls and dragged them out of the room, easily ignoring the two struggling to break free. Meanwhile the two heard Hunk and Katie screaming for them, even when the door slid shut and muffling their shouts of anger.

While he struggled, Lance made a note of where they were going, hoping he could surprise one of the dumb sentries and break free, but it was useless. The bots had painful grips that didn’t loosen a bit as he and Keith were dragged through the halls.

They reached a new room, several halls away from their first cell, and the Galra woman opened the door, turning to face the two Paladins with a wicked smile.

“Have fun while you’re both in here.” She sneered, eyes flicking to the sentries. “Bring them in but don’t let go until _they_ arrive. Shouldn’t be too long.”

Lance and Keith were brought into the room without the woman giving another word, closing the door behind them. They both still struggled but Lance looked around the room to see if he could guess what was going to happen to them.

It was a fairly large room, larger than the cell was. There were two doors on either side, a blank wall and another glass wall, and when Lance saw the other side, he froze. Shiro was tied up to what looked like a table tilted to face the window, even his stump of an arm was held down to the table by the neon pink restraints. Only a cloaked person was in the room with Shiro, one of the druids if Lance remembered their wardrobe correctly and fear filled his stomach for a moment.

_Why was Shiro there? Why can we see him?_ He thought, tugging at his wrists, eyes glued to Shiro. _What are they going to do?_

“Sh-Black!” Keith shouted, seeming to realize the Black Paladin was behind the window.

“Guys! What are you going to do to us?” Shiro shouted, glaring furiously at the druid with him.

Whatever the druid said, Lance and Keith couldn’t hear him, but they saw their leader’s face pale with fear and he struggled in his restraints.

“Don’t touch them! No!” He shouted desperately as the other door opposite the one the two Paladins had entered in opened.

In came a couple more druids and several more Galra guards entered, all looking stronger than even the sentry bots holding the two young adults.

They didn’t give the two even a moment to try to figure out what was going to happen before they advanced on them.

They went for Keith first, the sentries letting go of him just as a Galra slammed his fist right into his gut, and all Keith could do was double over and cough, but they didn’t stop. One guard grabbed him by the mullet as two others beat him without mercy.

Lance couldn’t speak, or couldn’t hear himself scream. His eyes tunneled on his close friend getting his shit kicked in, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

He was so out of his mind at the moment he hadn’t realized the sentries holding him had finally let go before an arc of bright purple electricity hit him in the chest. His sight went white in agony as his entire body screamed in pain.

He couldn’t tell how long he was being hit with the druid’s magic but he knew the druid took a few seconds every so often to let Lance take a breath before hitting him again. At least, he guessed as much, as there had been moments he felt his body breathe in for air before letting it all out in a scream.

Chapter done!


	3. Explain!

Shiro was beside himself, watching the two get tortured in front of his eyes while he could do nothing about it. He watched as both Keith and Lance coughed up blood, dark red and fuchsia puddles on the floor.

He was almost certain he had thrown his voice, but he wasn’t the only one, hearing Lance’s cracked screams and seeing Keith’s lips spilling blood.

Finally everything stopped in the other room and while the guards and the druid that had attacked Lance moved away from the beaten pair, the second druid approached.

“Get away from them!” Shiro snarled, his voice no louder than a wrecked growl, but his eyes were desperate and angry.

The druid didn’t listen, or didn’t hear him, as he extended his hands to the possibly unconscious Paladins. But instead of the lightning, a lighter violet mist came from his hands and settled into the two, and Shiro watched as the cuts and bruises faded from Keith’s face and the burst veins healed on Lance.

Shiro was confused on why they were healing the two when the druid with him laughed harshly.

“Makes them like clay.” He laughed at Shiro. “After some rest, they’ll be ready for more.”

Shiro felt his breath caught in his throat. “No.” He breathed, his heart pounding almost painfully.

“Oh, yes, Champion.” Another voice came behind, and Shiro saw Haggar enter his view. “You have all been thorns in our sides for too long. We will relish in your screams for a long time to come.”

Shiro said nothing, couldn’t think of what to say yet. But it didn’t look like Haggar or the other druid cared if he spoke or not, as the next thing Shiro knew, he was back in his cell, watching Lance and Keith be dropped and re-shackled to the walls, and almost distantly hearing Hunk and Pidge scream at both the guards and their friends.

“Lance? Lance! What happened? Wake up!” Katie cried, sounding distressed as she tried to reach for him.

Hunk was trying to reach Keith, his own voice giving away his fear and concern. “Hey, c’mon buddy. Wake up, please. What happened? What’s wrong?”

Neither could reach for the unconscious duo, the tethers attached to their ankles too short.

Shiro slipped to the floor, closing his eyes and hoping to not see the torture he watched to appear behind his lids, but they did. He even heard ringing similar to Lance’s screams, and his eyes snapped wide open, breathing quickly.

This was different from the torture he had endured all those years ago, especially given it wasn’t him receiving the torment but his friends, his teammates.

“...ro! Shiro!” He snapped to attention by Katie’s wavering voice, and locked eyes with her, noticing the shine in her eyes before seeing the furrow in her brow and the angry frown on her lips. “What. Happened.” Her jaw clenched as she spoke, looking like she was trying not to cry or something.

“I…” Shiro tried to speak, but his throat closed up.

“Pidge…” Hunk called, distracting the two, and they looked over to him. He simply shook his head, eyes soft as he looked back at Shiro.

“But…!” Katie started, but at another shake of his head, she shut up with a sniffle, her hands in tight fists. “Fuck!”

Shiro couldn’t see her face anymore when she leant against the window, but he saw her entire frame shake as she swore over and over again.

**2 hours later**

Lance woke up to the sounds of weeping, and very quiet swearing. He groaned, his body starting to shake at the memory of the electricity flowing through him but not feeling the pain of it anymore.

At his groan, both the weeping and swearing stopped before he heard a familiar cry.

“Lance!” Hunk cried.

He opened his eyes slowly, taking note that he was back in the cell, and despite the shaking, felt no pain that had left him unconscious who-knows how long ago. He saw Katie and Hunk, both with wide, watery eyes, and the Green Paladin had tear stains down her cheeks.

“What’s… wrong?” He tried to play if off, but his gravelly, ruined voice gave it away.

“Lance, what happened? What did they do to you?” Hunk asked.

Just as Lance was about to answer, the door opened again, and everyone tensed up. Lance struggled to sit up, watching with wide eyes as the sentry bots walked past him, the lady guard walking behind them with her nasty grin.

“Take the Yellow Paladin this time.” She ordered, pointing to Hunk.

The sentries went to him and unchained him, ignoring his struggling.

Katie and Lance both shouted at the lady Galra angrily.

“No!” “Don’t take him!” Lance winced at how weak his voice was, from all the screaming before.

The Galra laughed at the protests before leaving the room with Hunk in tow, and Lance felt his cheeks dampen.

“No, no no nonono. Fuck, quiznak, please no.” Katie cried, punching her window-wall as angry looking tears slipped, her eyes going to the chain around her leg. “There has to be a way to get rid of these!”

She tugged at the restraint, the chain, even the part that connected to the wall.

Lance didn’t say anything, just watched her before seeing Shiro being taken away without a word. His eyes caught Shiro’s, and they locked for a brief moment, but Lance could tell how much pain their leader was in, a haunted expression telling him the shakiness and past pain had been real.

He wasn’t sure how long they had stayed like this, but it was when Keith groaned, showing he was waking up, that both Paladins looked over to him quickly.

“Keith, thank god. Are you okay?” Lance asked, worried. His eyes roamed his friend’s face, looking for any sign of injury.

Keith replied with dry coughing, as if he was trying to cough up blood. Lance suddenly remembered seeing Keith coughing from the punch to the gut and frowned to himself.

“Keith? Buddy?” He asked again, when the Red Paladin finally stopped coughing.

“No.” He spat, surprising the two by the anger.

“What happened? Please. Tell me.” Katie demanded, but her face showed fear to know what happened.

Keith made eye contact with Lance before locking on to hers for several long seconds before moving on, looking at the empty wall.

“They have Hunk now. I’m guessing they’ll continue to take us to do something.” The Green Paladin told him, and Lance swallowed nervously.

Keith returned his gaze on Katie before speaking, and Lance watched as all the colour left her face. Lance gave as many details as he could, with his ruined voice and lack of memory of the entire thing in the way.

When they finished speaking, Katie had both hands over her mouth in horror.

“Why? Why are they doing this?” She managed to say, muffled, but got no answer in return. Neither Paladin knew, and it was something they feared to find out.

Chapter done!


	4. Champion's Punishment

Shiro feared what the enemy would do to Hunk, as he was again strapped to the slab, but he kept his fear to his pounding heart and roiling stomach, desperate to not show any possible weakness to the Galra.

“What do these pathetic creatures think of you, Champion?” The druid who had stood next to him before asked, sounding smug.  “Maybe they think you’ll save them from their torment? That you must be getting interrogated for information, and that’s why they are being toyed with?”

Shiro clenched his jaw, shooting daggers with his eyes at the druid, who stood just outside of his periphery.

The druid laughed in reply. “Humans are all dumb, then. You couldn’t even guess what we want out of this.”

Shiro growled. “I’ll kill you myself.” He promised, but the Galra just laughed again, harshly.

“So simple-minded. It’s good to have you under our care again, Champion. The arena hasn’t been the same since.” Shiro opened his mouth to retort when his jaw was grabbed painfully by the druid. “No more talking. Just enjoy the show before you.”

He focused on Hunk, who was being held down by many sentries as he yelled and swore at them.

When the assault started, Shiro wished he could close his eyes, but from the last time, he knew he would just be slapped until he watched his teammates, his _family_ get hurt while he could do nothing to stop it.

They were merciless, cuts and gouges showing through the slices of the black under armour suit, and soon Hunk was coughing up blood from the beatings to his chest. His swearing turned to begging as his yells turned to cries, but they went unanswered.

“What do you want with us?! Stop!” He cried, and through the throng of bodies, Shiro saw Hunk try feebly to protect himself, to free himself from the sentries.

His cries continued to go unanswered until Hunk was barely hanging onto consciousness.

“This is the Champion’s punishment.” The druid on Hunk’s side of the cell answered, making all the Galra and sentries step away from the Yellow Paladin to grab his face in what looked like a painful grip.

“You see?” He forced Hunk’s face to look at Shiro, who hadn’t even noticed his face was wet until that moment. “It’s all Champion’s fault for leaving, and for your torment. Don’t forget that, pathetic.”

Shiro wasn’t even sure how much Hunk heard or understand, as the next second his eyes rolled up to the back of his skull, and the druid simply dropped his hold to begin healing the wounds.. After his wounds disappeared, skin changing back to his normal hue without a hint of bruising or new scars, the druid moved to the side as sentries grabbed the Yellow Paladin and carried his unconscious body away.

The next couple seconds confused him when sentries didn’t come to grab him as well.

“What are you doing? You’re done aren’t you?” He demanded of the druid.

He got a chuckle in reply. “Hardly. We’ve _barely_ even started, Champion. I mean, we still have yet to test out the last member of your pathetic Voltron crew.”

Shiro saw red for several moments and bucked against the restraints angrily. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”

“Protective, are we?” The druid taunted, looking into the other room as the door opened, Katie viciously pulling on her arms which were being held tightly by two sentries. “Ah, here we are.”

“Don’t you dare.” Shiro shouted, straining against the bonds, his eyes on the youngest Paladin worriedly as she was forced to stand in the middle of the room with the sentries on either side of her.

Just like the last two times, the Galra didn’t listen to Shiro’s pleas, seeming to get some sort of sick satisfaction over the fact the great Champion, the leader of Voltron, was begging them to stop. Of course that didn’t mean they were actually going to pay heed to anything the enemy cried to them.

Katie was soon forced down, one sentry holding down her legs while the other held her arms by her head and Shiro could tell they both had the same horrible thought.

A Galra came into the room the youngest Paladin was trapped in, a spindly one with a bald head and beady eyes, looking every bit the stereotypical Earth villain besides the Galra attributes, and he held a container in one hand. His eyes went to Katie with a huge smirk settling on his face and he approached her.

In response, Katie snarled at him, pulling at her limbs. “I swear, slimeball, you try anything and you won’t see your next birthday.”

The Galra just giggled manically as he set down his container by her head and opening the top.

Both Paladins on either side of the glass held their breaths as Spindly reached into the container, pulling out a couple knives and other pointed devices. Now both had a different idea as to what the Galra were going to do to the youngest.

Shiro pulled on the restraints as Spindly picked at Katie’s black under armour, stretching it before snapping it back against her stomach, making her wiggle uncomfortably.

“What are you doing? Get away from me!” She cried.

The Galra didn’t listen, but again pulled Katie’s suit, although this time he took one knife and sliced into it, cutting the strong, stretchy fabric easily into a large hole. He smiled as he laid a hand flat on her stomach, ignoring her high pitched cries of alarm.

“Ah yes, this will be fun.” He giggled, looking to the druid on his side of the room. “So I just can’t kill her, yes?” The druid nodded slowly and deeply, and Spindly’s smile grew more wicked. “Fantastic.”

He turned back to Katie and slid a couple fingers over her flat stomach creepily, and both Paladins shouted and bucked against their restraints, one to get away, the other to save the first.

Both watched in horror as the Galra took his knife and traced small patterns along Katie’s exposed skin before unceremoniously plunging it deeply into her.

“NO!” Shiro shouted, not seeing anything for several ticks but coming to feeling his throat was thrashed again – possibly worse than after watching the torture Lance and Keith endured – and somehow, his full arm was free.

The druid on his side leapt into action, trying to grab at Shiro, but anger and adrenaline raced through his veins, allowing him to take the upper hand. He grabbed the druid by the throat, slipping his hand under the long mask that covered the Galra’s face completely, squeezing as tightly as he could. The druid scrambled to take Shiro’s hand away from his windpipe, gasping breathlessly, but the Black Paladin wouldn’t let go. He wanted the sack of shit dead before he stopped Spindly, his mind trying to work overtime with plans after plans before he heard a scream of pain.

“Stop right there, Champion.” Spindly called through the window, and when Shiro looked over he saw Katie being held up by the hair, her arms dangling while her legs wouldn’t touch the ground. Spindly held in his other hand his bloody knife against her open stomach, bright red blood flowing freely from the wound.

Shiro gasped, tightening his grip on the druid’s throat as he saw the open wound, already seeing the reddish pink of the intestines peeking from the hole, before seeing the tear-stains running down her cheeks and small bit of spittle half-way down her chin.

“Let him go, Paladin.” The Galra said. “Those guys are the only way you and your filth are going to stay alive. Kill one, and I get to play with this one to death.” To make his point, he shook Katie roughly, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Stop!” Shiro shouted, tightening his grip, knowing this was a stalemate – or hoped so anyway.

“Let him go then, Champion. I might be kind to this one and only pull out her organs but let them stay intact.” His eyes went behind Shiro’s head and brightened, making him turn around to see what it was.

His hand was ripped away from the druid’s neck and forced to wrapped itself around his own neck instead.

“Stupid human.” The familiar rasp of Haggar’s voice made Shiro’s eyes go wide. She soon appeared in his line of sight, her smirk clearly visible. “When someone tells you an order, you listen, shouldn’t you?”

“Fuck… You…” He grunted, eyes shooting daggers at her, but she simply laughed.

“You really should learn to keep those lips shut, or I will have someone seal them forever for you.” Haggar threatened, waving a hand and Shiro let go of his throat, gasping for breath. “Now I knew you were strong, but to escape these bonds, I am impressed.”

She grabbed his wrist mercilessly tight and put the restraints on him again, adding a couple more along the arm to keep it held.

Once he was secure again, Haggar turned to Spindly and Katie. “You may return to your fun, but remember to not kill that one without our go-ahead. After all, we haven’t decided how long the Champion’s punishment would be.”

“What punishment?” Shiro demanded now that he caught his breath. “All you fucks keep saying Champion’s punishment, but what are you even talking about?”

“You haven’t clued it in? And I almost thought you were smarter than the last we met.” The witch replied, stepping closer to the Black Paladin. “You escaped from us once before and evaded capture for a very long time. Lord Zarkon is not one to anger, and you and these fools have angered him greatly. So, when we finally caught all you, someone had the wonderful idea to create a joint punishment for the Paladins of Voltron.” She spat the final words with enough venom to kill, stepping closer to whisper in Shiro’s ear. “We will break your little friends over and over again, mend their weak bodies until they are nothing but a shell, and you get to enjoy the sight of their suffering. We don’t really care if they do die in the meantime, it would just mean more punishments added to the living ones. And we hope by breaking them, we’ll break you as well.”

Chapter done!


	5. Fear

Pidge would only ever remember bits and pieces of her torture. Not from repressing, not really, but the healing left a wiped mind. She would only remember the screaming and flashes of blood and pain, pain, pain.

The other thing she would remember, and this memory would forever be clear to the Paladin’s mind, was the plan. _Broken over and over again. Shiro’s punishment. Shiro’s fault._

_Shiro’s fault…_

Pidge woke up in a cold sweat, hands sluggishly making their way to her stomach. Although there was no more broken skin, her stomach was now exposed, crusted blood all over her under armour, telling her the pain and the screaming had been real.

“Katie! Oh my god, you’re finally awake.” A voice sounded far off ahead of where she lay. “You okay?”

All she did was groan in response, struggling to open her eyes.

“I’ll take that as a fuck no.” The voice said, Pidge realizing it was Lance speaking once her eyes cracked open.

She was back in the cell, her right ankle once again shackled to her edge of the cell.

When she struggled to get up, all the guys started to protest, but not even Hunk could reach her to stop her from sitting up, leaning heavily against her wall - well, it was more like a window.

“How… How long?” She questioned hoarsely, her hand reaching up to massage her throat.

“You’ve been out? I think about,” Lance played with his fingers as he did the math, “almost six hours. You really scared us, Katie.”

_Six hours?_ “How is that possible?”

“Dunno. Lance and Hunk had been trying for half that time to get to you.” Keith answered, his tone the only hint that he was deeply concerned. Pidge understood that, since they were on opposite sides of the cell with no way to get to each other.

“Do you remember what happened?” Hunk asked gently, his own voice sounding retched.

Pidge felt torn on answering. On the one hand, she should be honest because Keith and Lance had been honest about the horrors they remembered enduring, but on the other… Her hands shook and she wished she had something, _anything_ to use to keep them from shaking, but the wires she carried had been in her actual Paladin armour and her last hair elastic was gone.

“I don’t remember much. But…” She looked down at herself, at the cut suit around her stomach. “I don’t think they went with only flesh wounds.”

Lance growled angrily, looking frustrated. “What the hell do they want? Why are they doing this? They have the Lions and their Paladins, what more could they need?”

Pidge shuffled her legs to meet with her chest, hugging them close. She thought about the last words she heard, turning her head to see through her window-wall, seeing Shiro along the furthest wall, almost mirroring her with the only difference being his head held between his legs, as if he were hiding from the world.

She turned back towards the other guys in her cell, taking a deep breath. “I… I remember hearing something. I, I don’t know who it was, maybe some random Galra who was top brass or something, but they… They said they had a plan, and that it was about ‘Champion’ and we were all involved in it.”

“I heard something similar too.” Hunk put in, his voice soft. “I heard something like Champion’s punishment.”

Her stomach twisted painfully. Pidge had honestly hoped her mind had made it up, but with her fellow teammate’s confirmation, she had to tell more of what she remembered. “Yeah… They said it was his punishment, and we…”

“You’re all being tortured because I fucking escaped.” The four all jumped at Shiro’s voice. “They’re pissed I was able to escape so they want to make an example… If I hadn’t been saved by Ulaz… If I hadn’t escaped, you wouldn’t be here like this.”

There was an awful, pregnant silence after that, each Paladin trying hard to think of a way around this hopeless predicament.

* * *

 

Several systems away, Princess Allura and Coran continued to scan for the Lions using the ship’s mapping system, they’re eyes red-rimmed. The last thing either of them heard from the Paladins as yelling before static broke up each communication with Hunk first. One-by-one, the others lost connection with the Castle until Allura couldn’t even contact Shiro, leaving behind white noise.

To make it worse, Allura couldn’t feel her connection with any of the Lions, as if something happened to block any form of location.

She had known it was going to be risky. She knew, but she just, quiznak, she let them go because Pidge had been so _certain_ that even if the plan failed, they would all be able to escape at least. At the time, she had believed the youngest human, trusting her intelligence, but then the Castle of Lions got warped to the outskirts of the Galran empire, and then they lost contact with the Paladins, and then lost contact with the Lions themselves.

It had been almost a quintant since they last heard from any of the Paladins. Both Alteans spent the entire time awake and searching desperately, but continued to find nothing. The Galra base they had been attacking had moved by the time they started searching, leaving only the ruined fighters and debris behind.

Coran let out a sigh and swiped under his eyes tiredly. “Princess…” He started sadly. “We have to admit, we can’t find them by ourselves.”

Allura didn’t even look away from the quadrant she was currently searching through. “We cannot stop now. We, we _have_ to save them, Coran.”

“I know. But we cannot do it by ourselves.”

“Well, who do you suggest we go to?” Allura snapped, turning red-rimmed eyes onto her advisor, anger and desperation mixing throughout her body. “Those that we know of have shown to be better equipped with brawns than brains.”

“The Olkari maybe? Or even the Blade of Marmora.” Coran suggested, looking and sounding much older than he was. “They could both be of great help to us finding the Paladins, Princess. If we simply continue, we won’t be much help to the Paladins if we do find where they’ve been taken.”

Allura felt frustrated tears build up behind her eyes and she swiped them away quickly. She knew Coran was right but she was so tightly wound from no sleep and anxiety over losing her closest friends to the enemy.

She took a deep breath, hoping it would calm her down, and nodded. “You’re right. Of course you are. Sorry, I just-”

“I know.” Coran put a gentle hand on her upper arm in comfort. “I am too, and we’ll save them. I just know it.”

Chapter done!


	6. Nightmares and Hope

Shiro wasn’t sure how long they had been captured. He couldn’t entirely tell the time anymore outside of rest time and torture time. Each time bringing the younger four within an inch of their lives before it stopped.

His eyes now held the images of Katie’s intestines, Lance’s cracked skull, Hunk’s body twisting in agony, and Keith’s odd blood colour burned into his memories and he wanted it to be over. He wanted to give up, to break.

But something stopped him every time. Every single time he thought of screaming his surrender, of pleading the druids to stop, something kept him quiet, the whisper of long white hair mixed with the odd timber of orange, promising safety at the end of the torment.

He could tell the others held the same opinion. Lance would lay on his back, tear stains down his cheeks but he still managed to smile, to fucking laugh with good humour despite the situation looking as bleak as Keith’s greasy hair.

Shiro couldn’t tell through the small holes in the window, but he thought he could smell body odour - well, not just body odour, that would have been the tamest smell - that clung to the other Paladins. That was the only indication it had been at least weeks since the capture, as their hair grew ratty and wildly unkempt, and in Keith’s case, greasy.

They weren’t allowed to get clean but they were sort of fed at odd times, and by sort of…

The bowl was set by the door for Shiro, and two partially filled bowls brought into the middle of the pile that was the other four. They no longer were chained to a wall, all four unable to stand for one reason or another – their legs were too weak to hold up their bodies, or their leg had been broken too often and set wrong by the druids magic, rendering them lame. No one longer tried to fight back against the guards that gave them food.

It was a staring contest now as Shiro refused to eat until the others ate, and even he wouldn’t eat all of it, though he wasn’t sure if it was because he couldn’t or wouldn’t, knowing they would be tortured in front of his eyes soon after.

It was always Keith who took the first mouthful before passing it to the nearest Paladin. Shiro was sure none of them could taste the foul food anymore, either from their taste buds used to the taste or they no longer had taste buds. But still, they ate just so they wouldn’t starve.

Shiro couldn’t help but watch his family struggle to survive hour to hour, torture session to torture session. He remembered every single scream, every cry for help, every damn drop of blood that stained the torture room.

He was brought out of his thoughts at the sounds of dragging, and looked up from his barely touched bowl to see Katie weakly try to push off the sentries that gripped her by the forearms. The other men didn’t even make a noise, seemingly resigned to their fate, which broke Shiro’s heart, but he also didn’t say a word as the druid came to bring him to the viewing area.

* * *

 

It had taken a long time, and with every tick was another tick the Paladins were in trouble. By the human standard, it had been two thirty-day cycles since the Alteans and the Paladins had been separated.

But that time was needed to bring together the Olkari and the Blade of Marmora. Coran and Princess Allura acted as mediators towards the two groups, needing the best fighters from the Blade, and the smartest strategists from the Olkari people. It had taken some time, too long in the Alteans’ minds, but they had a plan, and the people, ready for the rescue mission.

The Castle of Lions would be left far away from the ship that held both the Paladins and the Lions. From there, the rescuers would divide into two teams, Paladins and Lions. The Lions team would go about securing the Lions, any means necessary, while the Paladins team would go and save the humans. Allura had already laid claim to being on the Paladins team, but after a heated argument between Kolivan, Allura and himself, Coran was also part of the human rescue mission, with Kolivan leading the Lions team.

They all wore their best, strongest armour, knowing it was going to be a dangerous battle, and lives would be lost, but they all also knew they had to try.

Allura stepped out of her room in her worn pink armour, similar in design to the Paladins’. She looked to see Coran already ready, wearing similar armour that simply looked wrong on such a gentle man.

Her eyes must have betrayed her thoughts, as Coran’s mustache twitched up in an attempted smile. “I must look ridiculous, huh, Princess? But this is something I can’t stand to stay on the sidelines. I did that with your father, and woke up ten thousand years later after his death.” He turned halfway to begin walking. “I don’t plan on losing another Paladin to Zarkon or the Galra.”

Princess Allura felt her resolve appear again, and she nodded in agreement. They began walking to the bridge, where the other fighters and strategists waited. The strategists would be in contact on the ship while the fighters would go out, but before that, they needed to gather and give a speech.

Allura barely heard her own words as she gave her speech, her thoughts on the humans she thought she could call family, after losing everything. She couldn’t lose anymore loved ones, she was sure her heart would surely shatter.

Silence greeted her for a single moment before cheers filled the room, praising Voltron. Then movement, as everyone got to their stations. Kolivan stepped forward and extended an arm to the Princess.

“Good luck, and I hope we see each other after the battle in one piece.” He said as she took his arm in a shake, their expressions solemn.

“The same to you.” She replied. “All the luck to the both of us on the success of this mission.”

Kolivan nodded once before letting go of her arm and leaving. Allura took the moment to center herself, hand going to the clip where her extendable staff waited.

There was nothing but a filling pool of anxiety to note on the way to the Galra ship where the Lions and the Paladins were prisoners in. Coran tried to help by holding one hand comfortingly but it was a short-lived feeling of calm.

Chapter done!


	7. Red Fury

All-too-soon, and yet not soon enough, it was time to fly into the Galra ship and Allura had to focus her mind on rescuing her Paladins. She could not afford to think of anything else.

“We have the human heat signatures. It looks like three of them are together on one end, with the other two together on the other end.” A crackling voice came into Allura’s helmet, and if she focused, she could hear the others speaking to the Lions team about the locations of the Voltron Lions. “Sending the coordinates now. Good luck.”

She brought up her holographic map, finding the heat signatures just as the Olkari said. “Perfect, thank you.” She said into the communications before turning to the rest of the Paladins’ rescue team. “Okay, we will split into two groups. Coran will head one, while I the other.”

“I can take the three, Princess.” Coran said seriously. “You go after the two with your team. But be careful of any traps the Galra might have.”

“I should be saying the same to you.” Allura replied, taking her staff from the holster to hold, ready for action, and turned to the other fighters. “Keep contact with each other and the Ship. We may lose lives, but if all goes swimmingly, they will not be in vain.”

There was a war-like cry of approval, and soon they were all out, flying towards the Galra ship where the signatures were closest. Soon, the group split into two evenly, and Allura cast one last glance to Coran, desperately hoping it wouldn’t be the last time they see each other.

* * *

 

Coran was much too old for fighting, but he refused to let his age stop him. His children – for that’s how he saw the humans and Allura now – were hurt, and he wasn’t about to lay down on the sidelines, only hearing everything through a comm link.

Despite his weary old bones, he fought with the rest. As soon as they boarded the ship, he commanded his team the best attack formations that even the strategists had to agree with the effectivity of them.

The bots and few Galra guards didn’t stand a chance, and the team was able to push forward, with intel from the Castle Ship on upcoming enemies and Coran’s knowledge on how to defeat them the quickest. The distance between them and the heat signatures slowly lessened until only a couple guards and a door stood in their way.

Coran couldn’t help but feel satisfied seeing the guards drop to the floor, their robotic limbs blasted and hacked to bits. It didn’t take too long before the door was burst open and he was the first in the room, only to hold his nose in horror.

It smelled like death over easy, a horrible combination of piss, shit and vomit clung to the room like a blanket, and in the very middle of the room lay a pile of bodies that didn’t look like they were alive.

“No, quiznak, don’t tell me…” Coran knelt by the bodies and put a hand to the nearest shoulder, shaking it to see who was attached to it.

A groan came in response to the shake, and Coran was never happier to hear Lance’s voice before.

“Lance, Lance, it’s me, you’re safe now.” Coran soothed, his eyes now taking in the bodies more closely.

He saw the rise and fall of each chest, but he also noticed the ripped and torn under-armour they wore, as if they had been cut to shreds while the young humans were still wearing them. He also noticed the discoloured skin, more visible on Lance and Hunk’s bodies as their skintone changed dramatically to purples and blacks and blues, while Keith’s body just had darker purple or lilac.

Coran felt like someone had crushed his heart in their palm, before he started shaking in rage. _How dare they. How dare they hurt these boys. How_ bloody _dare they._

Some of the Blade fighters entered the room as well, their masks on to filter the air, and a couple checked over the young men for injuries. Broken blood vessels, shattered and reshattered bones – particularly the arms and legs – and slight internal bleeding.

“It’s a good thing we’re a larger team.” One Blade member muttered as they all figured out how to move the Paladins without disturbing the internal bleeding too much.

“Yes, that’s certainly a good fact.” Coran tried to reign his fury under control. His focus was on the boys, nothing more, nothing less. “We must hurry.”

The team nodded and together began to make their way to the extraction point, ignoring the alarm that sounded. There were already members of the team that split off from them to secure the ships controls, and hearing over the comms links, they knew it was going in their favour.

* * *

 

Allura’s team was approaching the room where the two Paladins were in, and she listened to Coran’s team tell her which ones they would be. Her heart hurt hearing the condition the young men were in, but had to shake her head to focus. She was about to save Pidge and Shiro, and then they would be able to escape and evaluate from there. But first she had to save them.

She heard the screams before they reached the doors, and Allura felt her limbs grow cold before her vision tinged a furious red.

Waiting for no one, she took a couple steps back from the door and ran at in full-tilt, her right shoulder taking the brunt of the force as she tore the door from its place, and it crumpled like tissue paper.

The room – no, two rooms, separated by a glass wall – was surprisingly small despite so many people in it. Shiro was strapped down, facing the glass, with a cloaked druid standing off to the side behind him, and Allura found herself on his side of the glass.

Her eyes swept over to the next room and her jaw dropped. Bright red blood stained the floor, along with dried brown and dried fuchsia-tinged stains. Pidge lay on her back, her legs as well as her head held down by sentries, while a Galra man held a jagged dagger to her exposed and bloody stomach. Allura saw the heavy breathing Pidge gave, her chest shaking as it rose and fell.

What happened later, Allura wasn’t all too sure, but she came to after her vision was filled with a violent red. The room was larger. The glass had been shattered. There were robot pieces strewn about her, and the light violet of Galra blood stained the tips of her staff. She found herself kneeling by Pidge’s head, a hand gently patting her cheek, taking in the dirty tear tracks and the even more knotted and wild hair.

“It’s okay. We’re here. You’re going to be okay.” She soothed the youngest Paladin, looking back to the hole she had made to see her team bringing down the druid, to Shiro’s disbelieving face, still strapped down.

It was only then that Allura noticed he was missing his prosthetic arm. He looked haggard, his eyes sunken and his face more skull-like, as if he hadn’t eaten anything since the capture – and for all she knew, that was true – but he looked physically better than at least Pidge was currently. Despite her morbid curiosity, she didn’t want to know.

“Okay, we need to get to the extraction point.” She said, her voice hard. “Some of you will need to carry Pidge, I do not think she’ll be able to move on her own. I’ll take Shiro.”

The fighters that made up her team nodded and began to get ready to leave with the two Paladins. A Blade member cut the bonds holding Shiro to the slab just as Allura reached him, and she managed to catch him before he could stumble off-balance.

“You’re… You’re real, right?” He whispered into her ear.

Allura pulled away with a soft smile, and nodded. “Of course, Shiro. Now, c’mon, can you walk?”

Shiro stared at her for a good couple ticks before nodding. He still needed help, his movements wobbly, so Allura took an arm and put it across her shoulders, taking most of the man’s weight, which wasn’t much.

The team moved quickly, catching up with Coran’s team and the other captured Paladins. The Blade members holding Pidge had to be careful with her exposed stomach, noting every cry and croak of pain she emitted. While the perimeter kept an eye out for any enemies, a few members each focused on getting the Paladins ready to go into deep space, and then they were ready to go. Although Allura felt like it was a waste to leave without killing the vile Galra that dared harm her family, she was primarily more concerned with keeping said family safe now that they were back in her sight than hunting down every Galra on the ship that wasn’t part of the Blade of Marmora.

When the Paladins were ready for deep space, the teams began their departure from the Galra ship, hearing through the communications links of the success the Lions rescue had gone.

Chapter done!


	8. Healing

Every single Paladin was put into a healing pod, including Shiro, despite his weak protests. Katie had been put in first, her guts just barely hanging inside where they were supposed to be. The other boys were put in next, after having to rebreak the badly mended bones that were made apparent. Shiro wasn’t sure how any of them were going to recover after what happened, and still, as he was put into a pod of his own, wondered if any of this was real. It felt too good to be true.

While he was in the pod, Shiro dreamt of the torture he had been forced to watch, the usual nightmares of doing the harm to his four closest friends blending with new horrible visions. He saw Allura getting whipped, Coran with mutilated hands, and other horrible nightmares, that when he awoke, he was actually happy to see both Coran and Allura fine and whole, although rightfully worried as he shakily stepped out of his pod.

“Are-” He started but Allura knew the question already.

“They are still in their pods. Pidge will take the longest, we think, because of her particular wounds. Hunk should be the next one to wake up, though.” She said.

Shiro let out a sigh of relief. They were all really safe, gone from their prison. His legs could no longer hold him up, but Allura was there to catch him, like always, and he simply rested his head on her slender shoulder, tears slipping down his face at an angle.

* * *

 

Something changed within the five Paladins after that. It took another day for Hunk and Lance to be well enough to leave their pods, because their wounds were mostly broken bones or internal bleeding, things that were easy to repair in a healing pod. Keith took another couple days due to his badly healed wounds, and Katie took the longest, being in the pods for almost a full deca-feeb because her internal organs had been so badly damaged from being cut into so many times.

Looking over the results given from the scans, Shiro felt sick all over again. Here was actual, tangible proof that what he had witnessed actually happened. He had watched every second of his fellow Paladins’ torment, and had been useless to do anything about it.

He kept his distance from them after the small incident of Katie waking up. She was just getting out of her pod, eyes full of tears as she saw the familiar colours of the med bay when they stopped and stared at Shiro like he was a predator. Those eyes, so familiar and yet so full of fear, hurt him more than anything that had happened during the apparent three months of captivity.

It reminded him how they were hurt because of him. He caused all their hurt, every injury they sustained was because of him. Ever since he had escaped the first time, since he crash landed on Earth all those years ago, he had caused all this harm and pain to those he wanted so desperately to protect.

Allura tried to encourage him, stating none of what he thought was true was actually the truth, but Shiro couldn’t believe her. Not with all the evidence that was stacked up against him.

“I did this to them, Princess. Even if I didn’t hold the weapons, I was the one who hurt them in the first place.” He said one evening in his room with her.

Allura grabbed his hands and squeezed them gently but with meaning. “I cannot allow you to believe that, Shiro. You were just as helpless as they were. The Galra were just trying to break you all, but you and the others are so brave.”

Shiro couldn’t find the words, part of him hoping she was speaking the truth, the other wondering if she was even right or if she was just saying that so he could be the Black Paladin again.

* * *

 

At the same time, there was another sleepover of sorts happening in the common area, pillows and several dozen blankets strewn around the inner circle where the couch was, and the four young adults sat in a square.

Each young Paladin knew they weren’t the same after the torture they each endured. Pidge couldn’t stop holding her stomach, the paler skin formed a giant star-shaped scar. It was a disgusting reminder she could never truly avoid every time she took off her shirt or under armour. The others also looked different: a lot of Hunk’s muscles gone from malnourishment; Lance looked more like a beanpole – much like his teen years – if not for the skin and bones around his face, making him all angles; and Keith just looked as limp as his hair. The usual floof was gone, even after the first few times he showered since being saved, and something about his hair hanging limp like that got to Pidge a lot, which was why she suggested the sleepover between the four of them.

“Why didn’t we ask for Shiro too? I bet he would have liked this.” Hunk suggested, but froze when Pidge flinched.

“What’s wrong, Pidge?” Keith asked.

She mulled over her thoughts, uncertain. The thought of being near Shiro unsettled her, but she couldn’t understand why.

Thinking about it rationally, it made no sense for her to be afraid of their leader. It wasn’t like he did anything to her, and yet…

“Looking at him reminds me of…” Her hand ghosts over her stomach again as words failed her.

There was an uncomfortable silence after that as the young men understood her motion, and each tapped a part of their body where the Galra left the most painful memory. Lance held his right hand, the fingers curled awkwardly; Keith swiped a finger over his thigh, a place where the Galra had apparently tore a chuck of flesh out to see his mutant blood; and Hunk’s hand ghosted his neck, where they almost killed him before the druid had revived him when he had choked on his own blood. They were all unconscious gestures that were so visible to the others and none knew how to continue the conversation.

Lance was the one to speak first, his throat thick as if he was trying to control his emotions. “I get that, but we can’t begin to blame him for what happened. We’ll just be letting those fuckers win in the end.” He cleared his throat, looking much older than a man in his early twenties. “We have to be able to distance that shit and Shiro.” His face twisted in an attempted smile. "He's still our Space Dad, remember?"

Hunk was the next to agree. Pidge and Keith both seemed wary, but Pidge knew, deep down, that he was right. Still, she needed time to recover.

* * *

 

Each Paladin recovered at different levels. Pidge and Hunk needed help from their Lions, who were very eager to see their Paladins again. Lance helped the Alteans with Shiro, who understandably had even worse PTSD than before, but seeing Lance whole and okay, and Allura with him most of the time – even sleeping in his bed so he would have a smaller chance of having to face the nightmares alone – kept him grounded to the present.

Keith became a bit more of a recluse, getting his frustrations out in a healthy manner of decimating training robots. He was never good with his feelings, although sometimes talking to his Lion helped.

Slowly each felt confident in themselves to get to as back to normal as was viable. Pidge started working on her inventions and fiddling again, Hunk sometimes helping when he wasn’t training or in the kitchen. Lance and Keith both were able to train and banter – Lance took a long time to be able to shoot again, the phantom pains on his hands took a long time to forget they were just that – while they focused on keeping the other safe.

But it was nearly a year after they were saved when Shiro worked up the courage to speak to more than just Lance, Allura or Coran.

It was dinner time, and the younger Paladins were eating and laughing at something Lance was talking about when Shiro entered with the Alteans – Allura had known for a while about Shiro wanting to get things back to normal in a small way and was his moral support. The four quieted down, eyes drawn to their leader when Pidge stood up from her chair and walked towards him.

There was a sense of baited breath before she wrapped her arms around him, cheek resting on his pec for several long seconds, and her movement caused the tension to disappear quickly. They were finally on the road to recovery.

Story done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it wasn't clear, what happened with Lance's hand is that it was smashed. The thing I learned about snipers and sharpshooters, you gotta have a steady hand. Best way to change that? break the trigger hand(I got the idea from a FAHC fic, I think it was called Go Classy Into That Good Night, so read that if you like Achievement hunter or Fake AH Crew fics)  
> And that is it for this fic! It was a lot of fun to write, and hopefully yall enjoyed reading it!

**Author's Note:**

> Artists:[Wolviecat ](http://wolviecat.tumblr.com/post/167296770069/my-piece-for-voltronbigbang-for-canadiantardis) and [Pyrrhic](https://diimplings.tumblr.com/post/167301417804/here-it-is-my-other-piece-for)  
> Beta: My beta sorta disappeared on me, so any mistakes are my fault ehe ^^;;  
> I cry with joy, the fic is done and ready.


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